Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!lll-winken!uunet!yale!Pryor-Louise
From: Pryor-Louise@cs.yale.edu (Louise Pryor)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Regional accents (was: Spelling and Perceptual Mode)
Keywords: GB Shaw, orthography
Message-ID: <60340@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 12 May 89 00:49:35 GMT
References: <2763@puff.cs.wisc.edu>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: Pryor-Louise@cs.yale.edu (Louise Pryor)
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Organization: Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Lines: 20
In-reply-to: brian@cat50.CS.WISC.EDU (Brian Miller)
Xref: utzoo sci.lang:4499 comp.cog-eng:1102 sci.psychology:1842

In article <2763@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, brian@cat50.CS.WISC.EDU (Brian Miller) writes:
> 
>    Regional dialects are rapidly evaporating as mass communication becomes
> an integral part of modern society. 


This is just not true. It is still impossible to talk about *the*
British accent, let alone say that British and American accents are
similar.  Just listen to someone from Glasgow, or Birmingham, or
Cornwall, or North Wales, or Norwich, or South London or...  And
that's just in one small island! Alternatively, try to make yourself
understood with an English accent (so-called BBC English) at a filling
station in Atlanta (or New Haven, come to that). I doubt whether
Britons and Americans will ever have the same accent, the vowel sounds
are just too different on the whole.


Louise Pryor
ARPA:   pryor@cs.yale.edu
BITNET: pryor@YALECS.BITNET